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D41 . Oct 41 . Let’s get lost in the fields

Today was a day to visit temples – Yes, don’t tell me: again (profane I was, profane I’ll remain). Well, note that it’s not that I don’t like temples; it’s just that you might think, after a while, that they all look the same… isn’t it? Never-ending golden leaves in Thailand. Shiva standing, Shiva sleeping, Shiva dancing in India. Buddha awake, Buddha sleeping, Buddha stuffing in China…

Therefore, when Alex told me we would ride ten kilometers out of the city to see just 1 temple, and then 1 Buddha in a cave, I was moderately enthusiastic. It got even worse when we found out that our bicycle lane was sticking to the 6-lane highway… And that the temple was on the top of a hill… twenty kilometers from the city center. We arrived there exhausted, visited the temple quickly (nice one), gave up with the visit to the Buddha cave.

And then, we tried to find a way to escape the 6-lane highway and just let our compass guide us through the countryside small roads. And then the ride became amazing.
Yellow fields, ochre lights, silence of the road, jumping bugs… Beautiful and appeasing.

Some farmers as well, not so many.
I don’t now if this was paddy rice, or barley, or millet… If one of you knows, I’m interested…
It should be paddy rice (rice grown with a little bit of water only), but it doesn’t really like the pictures I’ve seen in encyclopedias…

As we were approaching the city center, pagoda-like roofs where emerging from the fields…

… And we saw again, under the sun this time, those amazing tumuli (graves under those hills).